Kevin Durant Blockbuster Trade to Houston Rockets: Exactly What the Rockets Need

The Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets agreed to a blockbuster trade on Sunday as the Rockets traded Jalen Green, Dillon Brooks, the No. 10 pick in the 2025 Draft, and five second-round picks to the Phoenix Suns for Kevin Durant. The trade was first reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania.

The Suns regressed this season, winning just 36 games under new (now no longer) head coach Mike Budenholzer. The Suns finished 11th in the Western Conference. This was followed up by a 2023-24 campaign where they won 49 games but were swept by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the first round. 

Durant played three seasons with the Suns, playing in eight games in 2022-23, seventy-five games in 2023-24, and sixty-two games this past season. He averaged 26.0 points, 27.1 points, and 26.6 points in his three seasons there. He was their most important piece, as the team during a stretch was 1-9 without his services when he missed ten games from December 10 to November 8.

The trio of Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal did not live up to expectations, with the oft-injured Beal (fifty-three games in each of the last two seasons) a curious fit playing with another scoring guard in Booker and neither player being a point guard. The team brought in Tyus Jones to be their distributor, and he averaged 5.3 assists. To Booker’s credit, he averaged 7.1 assists per game.

The Rockets finished 52-30 in 2024-25, and in the regular season finished sixth in opponent points (109.8) and fifth in defensive rating (110.3). They were also the best rebounding team in the NBA, 48.5 rebounds per game and 14.6 offensive rebounds per game. In the first round, they lost in seven games to the Golden State Warriors. 

In that series, the Rockets rebounded well and gave themselves many second chance opportunities. However, often times they were unable to capitalize on those opportunities. Further, they had games where they scored 85 points, 93 points, and 89 points. 

While the Rocket defense is strong on the wings even without Brooks - Amen Thompson may be the best wing defender in the NBA, and Tari Eason off the bench defends at a high level, too - they were starving for a scorer. Fred VanVleet did his best with games of 29, 26, and 25 points in the series against the Warriors, whereas Green four times in the series scored less than ten points. VanVleet can score but it is tough depending on your 6 foot tall point guard to score often especially when he was concentrated on so much in the Warrior series with Green struggling.

Durant, a player who will be 37 years of age in September and who has the sixth-highest scoring average in NBA history (27.2 points per game), is exactly what Houston needs. One of the best isolation scorers in the game with one of the best pull-up jump shots in the game. The Rockets retain a lot of their length defensively with Thompson and Eason, and Durant only adds to that now. 

Pair Durant with Alperen Sengun who is one of the league’s best post players, and the Rockets will be a danger for other teams in the Western Conference and around the league if they can remain healthy. Frequently, Sengun was left to operate late in the shot clock, and VanVleet was left to fend for himself trying to make something happen on the perimeter. That changes now.

The Suns, meanwhile, are entering a rebuild and may be looking at trading Booker or Beal now, with their logjam at guard. Still, this trade puts them in better shape going forward, especially getting the tenth pick in Wednesday’s draft.